Sri Lankan forces entered the last northern town under LTTE control Puthukkudiyiruppu, Tuesday, the military said. Defence sources confirmed that troops had entered the Puthukuduyiruppu town area, in Mullaitivu. This was the last remaining LTTE bastion.

After breaching tiger defenses, troops entered Puthukkudiyiruppu on Tuesday and were fighting house-to-house battles with small groups of rebels on the outskirts of the town, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. "They are resisting and retreating," Nanyakkara said of the rebel fighters.

The town's capture would be another devastating blow to the already reeling tigers. The LTTE, that controlled a wide swath of the north less than a year ago, would be left with little more than a handful of villages and a small strip of coast.

The Government yesterday rejected the LTTE’s call for an immediate ceasefire, adding that the Tigers must surrender, Defence Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told media yesterday. Minister Rambukwella had said the government was firmly committed to wiping out "terrorism" and described the demand for a ceasefire was "laughable". "We have taken a policy decision to completely root out terrorism," Rambukwella said adding "There will be no ceasefire with the LTTE."

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told international media that the government could not accept a conditional truce from the cornered Tamil Tigers and insisted that the outfit should unconditionally lay down arms first of all. "Our position is that they must lay down arms and surrender. There is no shift in our position," Nanayakkara was quoted as saying by news agencies.